Qwikness

Man you're an idiot. Yeah lets get rid of thousands upon thousands of jobs and put more Americans into poverty. It wouldn't only be the UAW workers affected but the whole country where those UAW workers spend their money. And then on top of that crime goes up as people get desperate and need to survive. Look what happened to Flint MI when GM shut down up there. It's a war zone just like Detroit now. How can you be mad at them for not wanting to take a pay cut, or getting health benefits stripped away from them, or not being guaranteed that jobs wont be shipped over seas. These people have families to raise and provide to and your answer is "replace all the lazy AMERICANS"

Grimlakin

Bad post. And bad example. Seems you have not made good money before. I make pretty good money. All it takes is one emergency room visit to wipe out my savings. Or a series of tests at a doctors office heaven forbid something advanced is needed like an MRI.

Even at 50 a year I don't have the cash on hand for a 5k mri trip and associated tests and charges. Sure you can get a payment plan with the doctors office. But how many of those before it is declared to be major medical?

Yes loosing medical sucks. And they are getting the preverbial shaft.

I don't know what a lineman makes in the factories. Union labor has become for a lot of people percieved to be a scam. Especially here in the south where Unions never took hold.

I don't doubt that your parents are in for hard times. Most people don't have 6 grand sitting around to survive on a month or two. (trust me when you are making good money you also are spending good money.)

stripedHEMI766

Good for UAW, gm probably thought bluff.

cosworthzx3

There is a surplus of 950,000 vehicals ready to move to the dealers.......production is slowen down. The larger issue is GM is threatening to pull production out of the U.S. if they do not come to terms. All just to pay some guy 75 dollars an hour to hang a shock on a pickup........

Killa SS

iTrader: (1)

The plant in flint and in Grand blanc are both on strike. My dad said it was because the UAW is trying to take the medical or something. i drove by the guys in grand blanc and honked for support. nothing else i can do but show i care and i drive a Chevy. haha. good thing my dad took the buy out last year.

stripedHEMI766

the govt wouldnt let a major manufacturer move out of country, besides, it would unemploy 100,000 americans and no one would ever buy a gm again, its just like Pabst, you screw your workers and now, no one drinks it

Killa SS

iTrader: (1)

thats not the point, in the contract for medical they say they'll cover it up to a certain amount, now there trying to take it off the contracts and cancel it off everyone's contract. and my dad work there for over 30 years and made $26 an hour. after taxes it comes to about $1000 a week. he worked 40 hrs a week.

kam2fst4u

All you people who hate the UAW are ignorant. I'm sorry but the union is valuable asset to the automotive industry. Pick up a ******* book and read about it before you start running your mouths off about stuff you don't know. I can't believe the stuff that your are even mentioning. The UAW/CAW (Canadian Autoworkers) affectively have changed everything about the manufacturing sector over the last century, making it safer, raising the standard of living, contributing to numerous causes, pushing companies to be more enviromentally responsible, corporate responsibility and so on. Please it is never about money, everything the UAW fights is not just for the membership. Beleive it or not the UAW sets the precedent for bargaining to be used in any sector. That includes those uniionized WAL-MART workers. It is one of the largest unions in the US and is in Canada, and they work extremely hard to bring everyone a higher standard of living, that's EVERYONE. Sorry I rambled but being a CAW member believe me I appreciate everything they do for me. I personally don't always agree with union policy but trust me when I say I'm glad someone's got my back.

stripedHEMI766

my uncle works at the toledo north plant assembling Dodge Nitros and Jeep Liberties, i know this is regarding Gm but they are UAW also, he installs engines and makes 39 bucks an hr, that is like 1200 a week, 75 dollars an hr, thats doctors wages

i support union labor

Onyxd04Redline

How many years has he worked there?

stripedHEMI766

he went to work there when chrysler bought AMC, at least 20 years there, probably another 5 at AMC, im just guessing

redSSBalt

They also said, the workers at the Lordstown plant are worried. They said the Cobalt will expire in production totally in 2008 and they don't know what they will be building when that happens.

nich7601

Here is the situation from GM/UAW-my dad is UAW, a mechanic, not a line worker, and just found out the reason.

GM wants the UAW to take over retiree coverage. UAW agreed.
GM wants the UAW to take wage concessions. UAW agreed.
UAW wanted guaranteed job security in this country for the length of the contract. GM did not agree.

So everyone who is talking about how everyone in the UAW is a lazy overpaid piece of ****, go **** yourselves. Corporate GM is a bunch of greedy bastards, trying to screw every hardworking American that works for them. Don't talk **** if you don't know the facts.

stripedHEMI766

AMEN

Old Man

You can tell whom is a GM brat, thats for sure.

GM has 2 local divisions here, one was Delco, which made wiper motors and other electronics for GM. The other is still here and was called Rochester Products, now Delphi.
They all most closed Delphi here until the union had made consessions for health care and wages. Wages now for those whom stayed or the new ones being hired is 1/2 of what it used to be. That now brings them in line with non UAW workers in this area that do the same jobs at out sourced companies, but still enjoy the protection of the union, the lessor amounts of work etc.
I, at one point did work for the UAW and quit.
Why would I quit?
BORED TO F*CKING DEATH and DISGUSTED.
I had 13 years of machining background and was in the same EXACT field of machining at Delphi. I could set up a machine, trouble shoot one, do electrical repairs and was actually a supervisor at a small machine shop. I was relegated to a lowly machine operator making 3 times what I was at that local shop. For the record and this was in the mid 80's, my Delphi pay with bene's was just over $45 and hour. I couldn't according the the union do anything but stand their with my finer up my ass watching my machine run. If it broke, I couldnt touch it at all and I watched hoards of so-called skilled tradesman take hours upon hours to fix **** that would take me 10 minutes. I got so disgusted I began to fix my own **** and what did I get. Warned by the union to stay within my grade bounds by welding my tool box shut, sticking my lunch in the oil system and flat tires. I ran circles around those guys and I wasn't the best the local shops had to offer, but dam decent. 5 years minimum I was told before I could advance and seniority was first on the list NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU KNEW against the senior person.
I still have today friends that work there and nothing has changed since the 80's when I was there. Seniority still rules the roost, so if your about to get bounced, layed-off and are a janitor, you can bounce someone with less time in and take his job which all you know is how to push a swab bathroom floors.
The manufacturing base of the US went to outside interests due to the UAW. The big 3, and they are greedy as hell, could no longer afford the high pay scales of all its people, ALL, the R&D the US needs to compete. The Big 3 showed the rest of the US how to be more profitable by outsourcing, going outside the US etc and the rest followed the leaders.

To make matters worse and drive the points I'm making harder. Unions forced the US to impose high tariffs on Asian automakers cars.
What did the Asian Automakers do?
Built plants in the US where jobs paying much lower wages were more than welcome. So now you have American Workers, getting much less wages than UAW workers are building a better product quality wise than there UAW counter parts.

nich7601

If caring about my family enough to think that a company should be willing to guarantee they won't move to Mexico for a couple years so that the 100,000 people who rely on them to eat dinner every night is being a GM brat, then sign me the **** up.

False. My dad works at the proving grounds in Milford, MI as a mechanic. This affects every UAW worker at GM, not just plant workers.

Grimlakin

I don't know all of it and I can not know all of it. I am not personally involved. And many of the Union members are not personally involved. It will be interesting to see the outcome of this.

IF the UAW has all of this financial clout and ability to treat it's workers and representatives right and all of this power.

Why not pool that and make your own manufacturing line then sell production to the big auto makers. Let them pay you for the skills needed to make cars.

Or is doing that not financially feasible at the rates and benefits you need to pay your workers?

Welcome to the world of IT. Every department in most large companies must pay there bills and justify there existence like any other individual company would do in the real world. Even giving special leeway.

If they can not do that they are not a part of business worth the cost.

Outsource to a better product and more skilled product line.

stripedHEMI766

here is a link to the list of all cars made by uaw.
http://www.uaw.com/uawmade/auto/2008/2008vehicles.pdf

this info from YAHOO makes the strike even better
"But Monday afternoon, the Teamsters transportation union said its 10,000 automotive transport members would not cross UAW picket lines to deliver GM cars and trucks."

dawhit99

Could someone explain to me how the jobs bank works? Is that if you get laid off GM still pays you full salary? That's what I've heard but don't want to say anything until I know for sure.

If the above is true (otherwise ignore this), that seems pretty messed up. If the company does poorly and then had to lay people off, they are still stuck paying for them. That would be my only problem with unions.

stripedHEMI766

thats not true, they get a set rate, that is one reason you pay union dues, each employee is set to receive 200 dollars a week plus paid heathcare under their old contract

dawhit99

I thought the $200 a week was "strike pay." What I'm referring to is not during a strike but if a worker gets laid off.

stripedHEMI766

oh, sorry, im not sure but that is something that is negotiated in the previous contract.

zinner

It's a scary time for a lot of people in America. As our country moves towards a service based economy people are being compensated for what they know, not what they do. There are about 3 billion people on the other side of the world that are hungry for jobs and will work for a lot less and are just as capable of working on a factory line as anyone else.

It's the responsibility of the high pay execs to make a profit and they need to cut costs to stay competitive and make more money for themselves and the shareholders. People make it out to be personal, but it's just business, plain and simple. I would be upset if someone took away my benefits, and I have been upset when it happens ever year I just don't get to strike, cause I will be replaced in like a week.

Good luck to the UAW people, they will need it because their sweet ride can't last forever.

stripedHEMI766

oh, yeah it can, UAW FTW!

nexus23

Entering the fray late...

For all of you who are staunch anti-union, I want you to take a good look at where you work. What protections are in place in the event you get injured on the job? What safety measures are there to make sure you don't get injured? Like the idea of pretty much no matter what job you do, you're going to make a minimum wage?

Do you think the government one day decided that workers rights should be protected? Or perhaps did they get a little nudge in that direction from unions? Even now, with all these protections in place, there are still abuses going on.

I'm a member of the IBEW - International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. We work with power. Do you know how often when I'm working I see non-union companies abusing their workers, not supplying even the basic *required* protective equipment? Daily. If they complain about it (meaning someone actually took the time to educate them about safety), they get fired. How would you like that? Risk your life working with something that can kill you in less than a heartbeat, and not even afforded the most basic protective measures.

People go, "OMG! Stupid, greedy unions!" I say look closer before opening your mouth. Want a good example? Check out Wal-Mart. How much do their employees make? How many benefits are they afforded? After, start looking at other corporations. What sort of practices do these companies participate in to maximise their profit?

Indeed, in the past, misdeeds were done on the part of some unions. Then again, misdeeds continue to occur in corporate America. Unions now choose their actions wisely. They don't go on strike on a whim. My local has a no strike clause because the impact would be disasterous if during a state of emergency, no one was there to turn the lights back on. Yet, we've had to fight for everything in our contract. Even for little things like a storm agreement, which gives us a little extra during hurricane restoration when we're putting in 16+ hour days, 7 days a week, under the worst conditions. Only took over five years to get the contractors to agree to it.

In the end, it's all about security. It's about having the security of knowing some jack ass having a bad day can't make up some bull ****, and terminate you for said bull ****. It's about knowing if you're injured on the job, you won't lose the shirt off your back. It's about knowing that when your kids get sick, you won't be bankrupted seeing they get the care they need. It's that little peace of mind that comes from being able to pay your bills, put food on the table, keep a roof over your head, and setting a little something aside to weather the storm should one come up. Unions aren't being greedy. They're looking out for the well being of their members. In the process, the well being of non-union workers also get looked out for.

j